Lennon's killer applies for parole

Mark Chapman, who shot dead John Lennon 20 years ago to draw attention to himself, is applying for parole.

The 45-year-old, who is now said to be a model prisoner and a born-again Christian, is to have a hearing next month and could be free before the end of the year, though this is considered unlikely.

Yoko Ono, the former Beatle's widow, will draw up a statement before the hearing at Attica prison in upstate New York, where Chapman is segregated from other inmates and works as a library clerk.

"I'm sure she'll have something to say on the subject," said Elliot Mintz, Ono's spokesman. "Before she makes her feelings known she wants to follow whatever the appropriate protocol is."

Ono said this year that she would do nothing to help the man who shot her husband four times outside their building in Manhattan. "I have to really be concerned about the safety of Julian and Sean [Lennon's sons] and myself."

Jack Jones, who wrote the book Let Me Take You Down about Chapman, said the killer was giving nothing away about how he saw his chances of freedom. "He's keeping his feelings about that pretty much to himself."

But Robert Gangi, the lawyer who heads the Correctional Association of New York, said: "There's not a chance he is going to get parole. Each case should be handled individually, but anyone convicted of the murder of a famous person is probably unlikely ever to get parole."

Chapman has said that he killed Lennon to be famous. "I had to usurp someone else's importance, someone else's success," he said. "I was Mr Nobody until I killed the biggest somebody on earth."